
FT MEADE 
GenCol1 


















































































































SOME MODERN SUB¬ 
STITUTES FOR «* * * 
CHRISTIANITY 


A CONSIDERATION 
OF THE CLAIMS OF THEOSOPHY, 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, SPIRITUALISM, SOCIALISM 
AND AGNOSTICISM, AND OF THE REASONS FOR DECLIN¬ 
ING TO ACCEPT ANY ONE OF THESE SYS¬ 
TEMS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR 
CHRISTIANITY 


BY 

GEORGE WOLFE SHINN, D.D. 

Rector of Grace Church, Newton, Mass. 


THIRD EDITION 

NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER 

2 and 3 Bible House 


+-3L 

s 


COPYRIGHT, 1896 

By THOMAS WHITTAKER 


Vht JOHN J. and HANNA M. McMANTJS 
■ad MORRIS N. and CHESLEY V. YOUNG 
Collection 

Gift—Oct. 12, 1955 

j* |i r> 

•> 3 


Astor Place, New York* 




CONTENTS 


I. 

Preface ------ 

_ 

Page 

5 

II. 

What are we asked to give up, and what 

DO THEY OFFER IN PLACE OF IT ? - 

ii 

III. 

What is Theosophy? - 

- 

21 

IV. 

What is Christian Science? 

- 

35 

V. 

What is Spiritualism ? 

- 


VI. 

What is Socialism ? - 

- 

^5 

VII. 

What is Agnosticism ? 

- 

77 



























A WOKD OF EXPLANATION. 


It is amazing with what ease some people change their 
religion. Last week they were members of a branch of 
the Christian Church ; to-day they are postulants for 
admission to some strange new sect. What they once 
believed they must now deny. How is it ? There are 
several explanations suggested. One is that they have 
never really understood the claims and the nature of 
Christianity. It is God’s final revelation to men, and 
it contains every excellent feature that has a foundation 
in truth. What is good anywhere else is found at its 
best in Christianity. But some have not been well 
grounded in the principles of Christ’s religion, nor do 
they know how it originated. Their superficial knowl¬ 
edge is but a poor defence against the sophistry of the 
zealous propagandist of the new “ ism,” and they yield. 

There are others who, being still more superficial, re¬ 
gard religion somewhat as they do politics or the social 
excitement of the hour. They consequently fall in with 
the current, and are for the time anything that society 
about them happens to be. Some of these vagaries in 
religion may be mere “ fads,” to be changed at will and 
frequently. 

Not all, however, who fall away from Christianity are 




6 


A WORD OF EXPLANATION. 


superficial folk. There are some whose very seriousness 
and thoughtfulness incline them toward the considera¬ 
tion of religious questions. Unhappily they are not 
always well guided in their investigations, and some¬ 
times see but the best side of the new systems presented 
by ardent and enthusiastic people. Sometimes impa¬ 
tience at the slow progress of Christianity and disap¬ 
pointment because of the imperfect lives of its advocates 
may lead them to listen all the more readily to the pre¬ 
tensions of those who hope to make the wilderness 
speedily blossom as the rose and usher in the universal 
reign of peace and prosperity. 

There are few persons so worthy of sincere pity as 
those who turn away from Christianity to anything else 
in their eagerness to hasten the golden age, and then 
find themselves mistaken. 

The waking up from dreams must come. The realiza¬ 
tion thafTtKey have blundered must be part of the ex¬ 
perience of those who desert God’s way to accept man’s 
way, and it cannot be other than painful. 

The advocates of erroneous systems are very zealous in 
spreading their views. They make large use of the press 
for this purpose ; and nothing is so easy to be had as 
pamphlets and tracts telling us, for example, the won¬ 
ders of Theosophy, the comforts of Spiritualism, and the 
miracles wrought by Christian Science. 

It is not so easy to find literature for popular use de¬ 
signed to meet these claims. If such literature had been 
abundant, this little book had not appeared. 

What is contained in the pages following was deliv¬ 
ered originally in the form of lectures in different places, 
with the view of warning any who might be influenced 



A WORD OF EXPLANATION. 


7 


by the adroit and persistent presentation of their views 
by these different classes of errorists. 

Another motive which prompted the delivery of the 
lectures was the fact that the silence of the pulpit was 
being misinterpreted. Because so little was said, it was 
thought by some that very little could be said, and that 
somehow these new antagonists of the old Faith were so 
strong that it were wiser to let them alone. 

In the judgment of friends who heard these le cture s 
they were helpful to people who were perplexed at hear¬ 
ing their religion attacked by those who declared they 
had something better to offer in place of Christianity ; 
and so the lectures are now put in this form with 
the hope that they may be helpful to others, perhaps 
to some who have been led away from their allegiance to 
Christ, the Divine Master, but who in their heart of 
hearts are desiring to return. 

That they niay^be useful in keeping some from falling 
under the influence of error, and in reclaiming any 
who have almost made shipwreck of faith, is the sincere 
prayer of the author. 

Inasmuch as these topics were originally treated as 
lectures, it may be that this book will supply a new 
course for those who seek something to read to the people 
at the less formal services held through the week, or it 
may suggest a much better course of instructions. 

No claim is made for profundity or elegance in these 
pages. They are only simple statements of the truth for 
the people. 

Those who seek a more scholarly treatment of the 
topics can readily find it elsewhere. 

The materials for the preparation of these chapters 






8 


A WORD OF EXPLANATION. 


have been gathered from so many sources that it would 
be impossible to refer to all here without overcrowding 
the pages. Grateful acknowledgments are made to those 
whose thoughts or words have been adopted, or whose 
suggestions have been considered. 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP? 
WHAT DO THEY OFFER IN PLACE OF IT? 



























































































WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP? WHAT 
DO THEY OFFER IK PLACE OF IT? 


Suppose that the reader and the writer had been ac¬ 
customed to making voyages to Europe on a line of 
steamers which for speed, safety, and convenience we 
had always found to be satisfactory. Suppose that some 
one were to approach us in the interest of a recently 
formed navigation company that had just launched a 
new sort of craft, with a hitherto unknown motive power 
and strangely constructed machinery. What would 
we do ? 

If we had any regard for comfort, or convenience, or 
safety, we would make inquiries about these new con¬ 
trivances before we trusted them. Ordinary prudence 
would prompt that much anyhow ; but we would proba¬ 
bly go still further, and make some comparisons between 
the stanch and well-tried steamers, on which we had sped 
our way over the seas in storms and calms, and this odd¬ 
looking, strangely propelled thing which had never yet 
made a voyage, and which, even to our untrained eyes, 
as she lies in her dock has a suspicious look. We can¬ 
not but think of the possibility of her going down in 
mid-ocean, or being swept helplessly onward at the 
mercy of the first heavy storm. 


12 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


If, when we turn away from the vessel to learn some¬ 
thing of her history—how she was built, and by whom 
and for what purpose—we should find eccentricity, to 
put it mildly, we would be even more cautious. We 
would not care to run risks on an untried craft, built in 
defiance of all the results of the experience of naval 
architects, and which it was proposed to move by a force 
which had never been properly studied and tested. 

Here is a readily understood illustration of the truism 
in common life, that you must not make a change un¬ 
less you can better yourself. 

In all the matters of ordinary life we are not ready to 
accept a substitute unless it seems better and safer than 
that for which it is offered. We go cautiously and in¬ 
stitute comparisons. We inquire into origins, and ask 
for results. 

When we pass out of the realm of simple every-day 
matters into the higher realm of religion, can we be less 
cautious in adopting changes ? 

Some substitutes for Christianity are offered in these 
days. We are asked by people around us to give up this 
old religion and to adopt new systems which they have 
devised in its place. We find that we cannot adopt all 
these systems at once, for a glance at them shows us 
how contradictory they are. One destroys another. If 
the eclectic capacity of certain people for adopting new 
things were very greatly enlarged, no one, even then, 
could take in, for example. Theosophy and Agnosticism 
{^t one and the same time. 

Which one, then, of'five, can we adopt? Can we ac¬ 
cept any one of them ? 

It is the object of these pages to suggest the caution 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


13 


which we are all urged to employ in our every-day mat¬ 
ters. If any one is disposed to consider any one of these 
proposed substitutes, he should certainly “ make haste 
. slowly,” and see what he gives up, if he ever relinquishes 
Christianity, to accept something else. There are, doubt¬ 
less, many unhappy people to-day who have swung away 
from the old faith before they had well considered the 
new. Their next plunge may be into the dark cavern 
of no faith at all. Let us hope, however, that they 
may be kept from so sad a fate as that, and be led back 
to the brightness which shines from Him who is the 
Light of the world. 

Perhaps at the foundation of well-nigh every rejection 
of Christianity is the failure to understand that a relig¬ 
ion cannot be true if it is devised by man. A true relig¬ 
ion must come from God. But men have thought that 
they could make their own religions and change them 
when they would. Some have supposed that Christian¬ 
ity was simply a code of maxims and wise sa ying s which 
originated with a man called Christ, and, therefore, it 
could be superseded by something else at men’s own will. 
Others have thought that if man originated Christianity, 
they could accept just what they cared to accept and let 
the rest go. Hence the attempt to eliminate the super¬ 
natural element from the Gospel and to explain away 
not only everything that is supernatural, but everything 
that Is theological. By this process Christianity becomes 
simply a code of morals, like the sayings of Marcus 
Aurelius. 

Think of Christianity as having no higher origin than 
man, and you can reject it at your pleasure. But think 
of it as from God, and the soul must pay obeisance to 













24 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


it. Because some have not thought of it as from God, 
they have offered something else. The old Deists of the 
eighteenth century presented their substitute. They ad¬ 
mitted the existence of God, and that He was the Au¬ 
thor of the system of nature. They said : ‘ ‘ Let us hold 
this belief, and give up Christianity altogether. What 
more do we need as a religion ?” They said : “ Let us 
believe that some great first cause set the world in mo¬ 
tion and somehow watches over it still.” That was 
Deism. It flourished for a while during the first half 
of the eighteenth century, but has now passed away. 

After it came a modification of Pantheism, paying 
outward deference to the religion of Christ; speaking of 
it as the highest point in the development of religion, 
but nevertheless quietly relegating Christianity to the 
region of outworn faiths. After Pantheism came vari¬ 
ous substitutes. 

The five proposed substitutes to which attention will 
be called are Theosophy, Christian Science, Spiritualism, 
Socialism, and Agnosticism. 

In order to understand more clearly the history and 
nature of these proposed substitutes, it will be a helpful 
preliminary to take a view of the history and nature 
of Christianity, so that we may see what would be dis¬ 
placed if any one of these substitutes were adopted. 

Christianity claims to be a religion from God and a 
final revelation of God’s will to man. It did not origi¬ 
nate as something new nmeteen centuries ago, but de¬ 
clared itself to be the development and the culmination 
of all that had preceded it. It was linked in with the 
purest faith the world had known up to that time, and 
was proclaimed as the sequel toward which that old 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


15 


Monotheistic faith had pointed. It gathered up in it¬ 
self the religious hopes of all the ages. It offered itself 
as the ideal of all aspirations ; and Christ, who is Chris¬ 
tianity, declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life. 

Christianity claims to be God’s final revelation. It 
professes to be the religion of truth and goodness. It 
has doctrines which it teaches. It has aims which it sets 
before men. It would mould human character. Teach¬ 
ing men what is true as to God and what is true as to 
man, it would influence men to right living. It is not 
a mere system of doctrines to be intellectually received. 
Its truths are to be translated into character. It pre¬ 
sents Christ as God speaking to men. Its final aim is 
to have men become like Christ. The more they attain 
to the likeness of Christ, the more they realize the pur¬ 
pose of this religion. 

Christianity as a religion, claiming to be from God, 
has been before the eyes of men for nineteen centu¬ 
ries. It began obscurely in a province of Palestine. Its 
Founder was put to death. Its first advocates were men 
of but slight prominence. Nevertheless it grew. Noth¬ 
ing ever so aggressive as Christianity. Nothing ever so 
benignant. It came to men claiming to have a message 
from Deity. More than this, it declared that Deity 
Himself had come into our humanity ; that God in 
Christ was reconciling the world unto Himself ; that the 
great Shepherd of the sheep was seeking the lost; that 
the Lord had visited and redeemed His people. 

How gracious it was ! It had the voice of mercy. It 
had all the tenderness of Divine pity. The beating of a 
loving heart was felt in all that it did. Wherever its 



16 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


touch was felt there came a healing benediction. Wher¬ 
ever two men heard its message one man regarded the 
other thenceforth as his brother. It knit the bonds of 
affection between all classes. It reconciled foes. It 
made men to be as of one household. They were of one 
Father, Christ was the Elder Brother of prince and 
peasant alike, and all men were brethren in the Lord. 

Such was and such is Christianity, the religion that 
claims to be Cod's final revelation to men. 

What wonderful results it brought about! It changed 
the condition of the world. It made a revolution 
in the laws, usages, opinions, and feelings of men. It 
softened the ferocity of savage tribes. It made proud 
men humble. It demanded justice for all, and opened 
channels of beneficence in a hundred directions. It 
came into every ill and woe of man to bring blessings. 
A thousand benignant things which may at first seem 
to be derived from other sources are really the result of 
the introduction of Christianity. Our civilization, our 
arts, our freedom, our laws are due in greatest measure 
to Christianity. Blot this religion out of man's history, 
and what would that history have been ? What would 
have been modern civilization to-day without it ? 

Why, this religion is so mingled with the life of our 
day that there is hardly a familiar object around us that 
does not bear its mark. The world, indeed, has a dif¬ 
ferent aspect because the light of Christianity has fallen 
upon it. 

“ It has broken the monotony of thought and set the 
minds of the world in action." It has frowned upon in¬ 
justice and moulded governments according to the prin¬ 
ciples of rectitude. It has evoked and refined the best 


WHAT ARE WE ASKED TO GIVE UP ? 


17 


sympathies of man, and has helped social order and 
progress. It has purified the fountains of life and filled 
the soul of man with reverence and love for God. 

gut not only has this religion already accomplished 
wondrous results, it pledges itself Jo. produce still 
more. “ What a world this will be” exclaims one, 
“ when Christianity shall have realized its sublime mis¬ 
sion ! Sin's thunder-storms will not always beat on the 
world ; a celestial calmness will one day come. It will 
not always be tossed about like a vessel in a storm. It 
will one day repose on the calm sea of infinite love. 
The centre of light is already planted in its moral 
heavens. The darkness is passing away, the morning 
advances. Conflicting elements shall be hushed. Clouds 
shall melt before the sunshine ; every mountain shall 
be made low and every valley shall be exalted, and this 
world shall become radiant with the light of heaven and 
shall resound with heaven’s own music.” 

This is the religion we are asked to give up, This is 
that for which men propose substitutes. 







WHAT IS THEOSOPHY? 


















































































































WHAT IS THEOSOPHY? 


It is not an easy task to tell what it is. First of all, 
its leading principles are not readily translated into sim¬ 
ple and untechnical phrase. Then its advocates ditfer 
among themselves as to what these leading principles 
are, and change or abandon them at will. It appears to 
be an effort to build up something on the foundation of 
the old Eastern “ wisdom religions,” as they were called, 
and to revive the odd fancies which men have held con¬ 
cerning life and destiny. 

There is no necessary connection between individuals 
and schools who have been called Theosophists. It 
simply seems to be a convenient designation for those 
who seek to make use of portions of these ancient specu¬ 
lations of the East. Of late years there has come into 
existence a new society of Theosophists. 

Two names rise up into prominence when this modern 
organization is mentioned : Madame Blavatskv and Col- 

0 —n iwnmnifinmw r-rT 1 ^ immirnr * 

onel Olcott. They were the founders of it in Novem¬ 
ber, 1875. The declared purposes of the new organiza¬ 
tion were as follows : L^To form the nucleus of a Uni¬ 
versal Brotherhood of Humanity, without regard to race, 
creed, sex, caste, or color. 2. To promote the study of 
Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, philoso- 




22 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


< 


phies, and sciences. 3. To investigate the unexplained 
laws of nature and the psychic powers latent in man. 

Madame Blavatsky was regarded as the mouthpiece to 
the Western world of the Wisdom Religions of the East. 
She was declared to have received her knowledge from 
certain adepts in occult science who had instructed her 
in its mysteries and deep philosophy. Her instructors 
are spid to be the Mahatmas. These Mahatmas are great 
beings, who have attained to high stages of human per¬ 
fectibility. These beings cannot be seen by common 
mortals, only by those who have attained the same plane 
of consciousness. They are not angels or spirits, but 
possibly reincarnations of men, or men too wise to die. 
The Mahatmas may or may not wear bodies ; they can 
travel with lightning-like velocity, and are always at the 
call of such of their disciples as have reached the proper 
stage of sublimation. 

One of their most common performances seems to be 
to travel many miles to drop letters from the ceiling to 
the floor of the rooms where their disciples happen to 
be. “ But,” said Madame Blavatsky, “ the world is not 
ready yet either to recognize the Mahatmas nor to profit 
by their appearance.” “They have been met on the 
shores of the Ganges and in the ruins of Thebes, in the 
arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara and in the 
caves of the earth. They may be found everywhere, but 
make themselves known only to those who have devoted 
their lives to unselfish study, and are not likely to turn 
back.” Note that the Mahatmas are a very important 
feature of modern Theosophy. You must believe in the 
existence of these human beings who may be all the way 
from a hundred to many thousand years old, who may 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


23 


be the result of a succession of reincarnations, and who 
have the power of appearing and disappearing at will, 
and of travelling from place to place quicker than the 
stars that shoot athwart the sky. The founder of the 
society says that they taught her what she knew of the 
principles of Theosophy. 

Of the strange history of Madame Blavatsky it is need¬ 
less to speak at length. She^ was born in the north of 
Russia in 1831. Her early life was filled with remarkable 
adventures. When she was sixteen years old she mar¬ 
ried a man nearly seventy. She had been married but a 
few months when she suddenly left her husband and her 
home. Later on she burst upon the world as a spiritual¬ 
ist, and then still later as a teacher of the occult philos¬ 
ophy of the East and as a founder of a new society. 

The interval from 1848, when she left her husband, 
to 1857 is an unexplained gap in her existence. Her 
friends say that she was then in Tibet, studying the se¬ 
crets of the Mahatmas, but others declare that she led a 
wandering life, being sometimes in Paris, in London, in 
Hew Orleans, and elsewhere. Ho one knows just where 
and why. In 1858 she appeared as a convert to Spir¬ 
itualism. Some years later she set up a spiritualistic, 
society in Cairo. 

Her prominence in this country began to grow in 1874, 
when she made the acquaintance of Colonel Olcott. 

Colonel Olcott had been a soldier of the Union and an 
agent of the Government in various capacities. He set¬ 
tled down to the practice of law and the pursuit of lit¬ 
erature. He became well known as a newspaper corre¬ 
spondent. He first met Madame Blavatsky in Vermont, 
where he was sent by a Hew York newspaper firm to 




24 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


examine into some supposed spiritualistic manifestations 
by the Eddy brothers. Madame Blavatsky made her ap¬ 
pearance there, and she seems to have soon gained a 
very willing disciple. He says, in one of his books, that 
“ little by little she let me know of the existence of 
Eastern adepts and their powers, and gave me proof of 
her control over the occult forces of nature by a multi¬ 
tude of phenomena.” 

By and by Olcott was initiated into the inner cir¬ 
cle, and received written communications from some 
of the Mahatmas—at least so he declares. Never was 
there a more accommodating convert than this soldier. 
He dropped all secular work to aid her in establishing 
her new society in different parts of the world—a society 
that contemplates the formation of a Universal Brother¬ 
hood, based upon a revival of some of these old religious 
principles held in the East. This new society is to 
adapt to modern uses these ancient beliefs, and of course 
their adoption means the overturning of Christianity 
and the substitution of something which they suppose is 
better than Christianity. 

We shall see later on the contrast between the two 
systems, as we study the doctrines which modern Theos¬ 
ophy asks us to accept. 

Says one of its recent exponents, “ Theosophy is to be 
found here and there in the ancient Aryan literatures, rem¬ 
nants of it in the Zoroastrian and other ancient religions 
and philosophies, and fragments in the Greek pantheistic 
philosophy. Nowhere, however, had any complete out¬ 
line been collected until about the third century, when 
a school of New Platonic Philosophy was opened at 
Alexandria, in Egypt. This school gradually elaborated 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


25 


a system of philosophy and religion, in which were 
embodied all the elements of theosophical teaching which 
had withstood the crucible of time.” 

These philosophies held three chief beliefs : 

“ 1. That there is a supreme, inscrutable, all-pervading 
and absolute Deity, from which all nature, visible and 
invisible, has proceeded, and into which it will return.” 

Observe the expression “ from which” for the person¬ 
ality of Deity is denied. 

“ 2. That man is an imperishable entity, of divine and 
of infinite potentiality as a progressive manifestation of 
divine nature.” 

We shall see what this progression includes, and how it 
ends in man’s annihilation as an individual. 

“ 3. That there are certain intelligent forces in nature, 
also psychic and spiritual powers in man, which are capa¬ 
ble of development and of use by man. ” 

This refers in part to the occult sciences, which have 
always excited curiosity. 

It will be noted later on how these three general prin¬ 
ciples may be regarded as including some of the views 
promulgated by modern theosophical societies. Many 
attempts have been made to adopt and use this strange 
jumble of Eastern religion, philosophy, and science. It 
was hoped by some that the mastery of its principles, 
and the attending supernatural illumination, might admit 
them to a knowledge of the mystery of being, and that 
they would thus find the solution of every difficulty in 
science and of all the hard problems in the spiritual 
world. They expected a miraculous knowledge of physics 
and special spiritual insight. 

Persons who are interested in the history of these 


26 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


efforts to appropriate parts of Eastern mysticism will 
find some strange chapters recounting the story of Para¬ 
celsus (1493-1541), and later on the Rosicrucians, and 
finally that of Jacob Bohm (1575-1624). 

Let us now look at some of the doctrines of modern 
Theosophy as they appear when stripped of their strange 
verbiage and put into our common speech. 

First of all f what do they believe as to God ? They 
deny the personality of Deity, and they set forth defini¬ 
tions which represent God as “an impersonal thought, 
permeating and interpenetrating all things, s^that God 
is all and all is God,” In other words, it is Panthe¬ 
ism. 

Mrs. Besant, in her book, “ Why I became a Theoso¬ 
phist,” says : “ The next matter impressed on the stu¬ 
dent of theosophy is the denial of a personal God. The¬ 
osophy is pantheistic ; God is all and all is God.” 

You will observe that it is not God behind all things, 
distinct from His works, sending them forth with an in¬ 
telligent aim to do His will, but very God Himself. The 
stone, the bird, the tree are parts of God. Observe, 
then, that when one becomes a Theosophist he gives up 
his belief in a personal Deity and accepts instead “ an 
impersonal God, who cannot see, or feel, or hear, who 
^has no sympathy, no love, no thought.” 

2. Closely allied with this conception of God is the 
other thought, that all things are fixed by an eternal 
necessity. ‘ 4 There is the iron law of a remorseless neces¬ 
sity, the fatality of unchanging and unchangeable force. 
There is no possibility of setting it aside. The only 
thing you can do is to submit.” 

The Theosophist sets forth God as the law of all 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


27 


things in the universe, and the universe as being under 
the law of fate. In other words, here we have the old 
fatalism of the East. You are to think of the universe 
as a great piece of machinery winch goes crashing on 
according to immutable laws and carrying you with it. 
You have no power to change anything. Prayer is use¬ 
less. Your agony is nothing to any intelligent cause in 
all the universe. You are in the inexorable path of 
fate. Your highest wisdom is to learn to submit to a 
fate that rules all with resistless forcer 

The Theosophist tells us then the dismal old story of 
fatalism. You must give up all your hitherto accus¬ 
tomed thinking about God as the loving Father, and 
begin now to think of changeless fate, which sweeps all 
on with pitiless force if you accept Theosophy. 

C A vast difference, surely, between the two concep¬ 
tions : A wise, loving Father who plans the welfare of 
VHis children. Remorseless Fate ! 

3. What does Theosophy teach us about man ? 

It tells us many strange things concerning man. 
Thus man, it says, consists of one spirit, three souls, a 
life principle, and two bodies—seven distinct things; 
hence the expression, “Man is a septenary being.” 
The spirit is indivisible and impenetrable ; the soul is a 
trinity in unity—spiritual, human, and animal. But 
there are three souls : the spiritual soul, the mind, and 
the desires. 

The body is really two, the outer being the physical 
body, and the inner one being the astral. The outer 
body, at death, is soon decomposed, and returns to its 
constituent elements. The astral body may exist for 
awhile after death and be the shadowy continuance of 


28 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


the person who died. It hovers over the dead body, but 
finally passes away. The animal soul lives for a while 
after the death of the body until it reaches a definite 
stage and is separated from the other soul, the ego, 
when it goes into the place of the souls of animals. The 
ego, the personality, goes on through a land of dreams 
until it awakes and-seeks to be reincarnated, to take a 
new body ; and this process may be repeated many 
times. Reincarnation is one of the distinctive teachings 
of Theosophy. Your soul—your ego—must live in 
some other'body again. Perhaps again and again you 
may be reincarnated in a variety of forms. As one has 
said : “ John Smith, who was vigorous and self-reliant, 
may reappear as Mary Jones, timid, weak, and depen¬ 
dent. Sarah Thompson, a refined and cultivated gentle¬ 
woman, may come back as a burly, pushing, not over- 
scrupulous politician/’ You will observe that “ in re¬ 
incarnation the matter of sex is not arbitrary. A man 
may be reincarnated as a woman, and a woman as a 
man. The father of one family may come back to be 
the mother of another family. The quiet, self-re¬ 
strained, dignified maiden of to-day may be, in her next 
process of reincarnation, the bootblack who plies his 
business on the corner of the city street. The man of 
wealth now may have to appear next as the ragged beg¬ 
gar, and the day laborer may become in the next change 
the refined gentleman or the cultivated gentlewoman. 
No one knows how many times he may have to be rein¬ 
carnated. Again and again we must go through this 
process of living in clay tenements “ in revolving sex, 
in continually changing conditions, from profoundest 
joy to keenest sorrow, from munificent wealth to abject 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


29 


want, passing through ranges of utter comedy to the 
voiceless agony of tragedy that has no sunlight.” 

And what aoes Theosophy teach Us is the end of 
all? 


After all these reincarnations, “when the last round 
of the last race shall be made, and when the ego shall 
attain to that condition where it can remember all its 
past reincarnations and can recall all the incidents and 
feelings of each separate consciousness on earth ; when 
it shall have attained to the full knowledge of all its as¬ 
pects of principle and law in each separate experience”— 
what then ? 

Then it will “ enter into the eternal and final all, and 
become an integral part of the great abyss of imperson¬ 
ality called God.” The Eastern mind calls this Nir¬ 
vana. Stripped of all imagery, it is nothing but annihi¬ 
lation. The blotting out of the soul as a separate ex¬ 
istence, to become part of the impersonal Deity, is a very 
different thing from the vague phrase often used, “ Ab¬ 
sorption in God.” The latter somehow implies continu¬ 
ous blissful existence, but, says Hardwick, the oldest 
literature of Buddhism will scarcely suffer us to doubt 
that Gautama intended by Nirvana nothing short of 
absolute annihilation, the destruction of all elements 
which constitute existence. If we are told that modern 
Theosophy does not adopt the annihilation view of the 
Buddhist, but the view of the Brahmin, which is rever¬ 


sion to original oneness with Deity, the reply is that the 
denial of the personality of Deity and the denial of 
human personality compel us to think of such oneness 
with an impersonal Deity as an absorption which is the 
equivalent of extinction. 


/ 

s. 




30 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


Here, then, are the leading principles of Theosophy : 

1. A Deity who is simply the sum of all things, with¬ 
out personality. 

2. Everything governed by unchanging force. Kar¬ 
ma is fatalism. 

3. Man, a complex being passing through various 
changes, being often reincarnated and finally reaching 
Nirvana, or nothingness. 

This "is what you are asked to accept in exchange for 
Christian faith. This is what the Theosophist tells you 
is so superior to the religion of Christ. 

Compare the two. 

Think of the idea of God as the Theosophist expresses 
it, and then as it is set forth by the Christian. You 
have heard the idea of an impersonal Deity governed 
by fate. 

Think, now, of the Christian’s Supreme Being, the 
Creator of all things, visible and invisible. A God who 
is back of nature, imminent in nature, but not the mere 
sum of created things. He has ever an eye to see and an 
ear to hear, a heart to feel, and is tender toward His 
children. He reveals Himself as their Father, and in 

•K* # 

the incarnate Christ welcomes all to His loving heart. 

Which of the two conceptions seems to you the nobler ? 
There can be but one answer. 

Our own personality implies the existence of the Di¬ 
vine personality, and the Divine personality carries with 
it the ideas of an intelligent first cause, a wise and pow¬ 
erful Creator, who works upon a plan ; a beneficent 
Providence, who provides for the wants of His creatures ; 
a loving Father, who is ever watchful over His children 
—loving them with tender compassion, coming into the 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


31 


realm of their own humanity, and drawing them lov¬ 
ingly into communion with Him. 

This is the conception of Deity which Christianity 
presents. 

Think, now, of the contrasted ideas of happiness. 

Ultimate happiness, according to Christianity, is the 
blissful state of nearness to Cod and of likeness to Him. 
The man retains his personality, and is eyer growing 
more like unto God. It is always the relationship of a 
child to a father. However great the Creator and Pre¬ 
server of the universe, however wise. He is eternally our 
Father. 

When a Christian dies he is done forevermore with 
pain and tears. No coming back again to dwell in a 
mortal body. No reincarnation, to go through again 
the weary round of earthly cares and trials. His soul 
passes into Paradise, to await there the joyful resurrec¬ 
tion of the body, when the Son of God returns in glory. 
Then comes the end, when this dispensation shall cease ; 
when the redeemed of the Lord shall be welcomed to yet 
higher bliss. 

Compare the religion of Christ with Theosophy. 
Just so soon as you put the two together, it is as if the 
sunlight struck the great fog bank and the mists rolled 
away. Christianity is the sunlight of truth ; Theoso¬ 
phy, the mists of human error. Christianity is the re¬ 
ligion of hope; Theosophy, the religion of despair. 
Christianity, the religion that urges you to develop 
your best, to live in the sunlight of God’s favor here, 
and promises a continuance of that sunlight eternally, 
ever-ascending progress in holiness, ever-increasing like¬ 
ness to Christ, ever-enlarging capacities for bliss. No 



32 


WHAT IS THEOSOPHY ? 


annihilation, but eternal life in the nearer presence of 
God. 

The life of heaven is the life of sinless blessedness. 
It is the consummation of every good desire, every holy 
motive, and every noble effort. It is the Christian life 
in its advancing fruition, the ever-growing realization 
of knowledge and holiness. It is the perpetual but 
painless striving toward perfection. It is the fuller 
realization of the life of love in the presence of Him 
whose most blessed attribute is love. 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE? 




* 


III. 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE? 

One of the most remarkable movements in modern 
times is the growth of what is known to-day as Christian 
Science. 

In some of its features it is not an absolutely new 
thing, although it claims to be entirely a new discovery, 
and presses itself upon the attention of the world as a 
substitute for views which have been long held and cher¬ 
ished. It antagonizes science, philosophy, and religion, 
and offers itself as a new revelation, which demands the 
allegiance of us all. 

Although largely concerned with the healing of the 
sick, it does not confine itself to that one department, 
but would modify our conceptions of God, of man, of 
matter, of spirit, of sin, of the present life and of future 
destiny. 

Its advocates, drawn largely from the number of those 
who have hitherto been in the active membership of the 
Church, declare that they have passed beyond the crude 
and - erroneous views which they once thought were 
tenable to a newer and wider plane of thought, from 
whose heights they look with pity upon those who are 
held in what they now style the bondage of error. 

It is, therefore, perfectly proper to examine this new 




36 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


movement, especially as its adherents are presenting 
their views industriously in many of our communities, 
and, by unsettling the religious faith of some, are seek¬ 
ing to withdraw them from their allegiance to the Chris¬ 
tian Church. Whatever else may be said of Christian 
Science, most of its forms result practically in the 
presentation of a substitute for the Christianity of Christ 
and His apostles. 

Let us see what Christian Science is. In doing so, 
we assume the honesty of many of its advocates, while 
deploring the errors into which they have fallen. The 
plan will not be to indulge in ridicule or invective, but 
to point out the fallacies upon which the system is built, 
that those who read may be warned. 

While there are various bodies who call themselves 
Christian Scientists, it must be remembered that the 
claim to the discovery of Christian Science is made by 
one person, Mrs. Eddy ; and that although there are 
different persons who call themselves Christian Scien¬ 
tists, the -alleged discoverer of the system does not ac¬ 
knowledge any persons as genuine Christian Scientists 
except they cling absolutely to the views which she 
holds. She calls heretics all who do not set forth all its 
principles precisely as she does. She claims that no 
variation is possible. We are, therefore, compelled to 
think of the system as she and her friends publish its 
tenets. 

But before we examine what Mrs. Eddy declares 
Christian Science is as she discovered it, it is helpful to 
study what it is not. First, then, it is not faith cure. 
It is not mind cure or hypnotism. It is not spiritual¬ 
ism. In the popular mind these are sometimes con- 



WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE p 


37 


founded with it. It radically differs from all these in 
its claims. It does not profess to cure sickness by the 
agency of faith, not by the transfer of will power from 
the weaker to the stronger, nor by the exercise of any 
magnetic influence resident in brain and nerves whereby 
a healing current is made to flow from one to another ; 
nor does it invoke the ministrations of disembodied 
spirits, whereby subtle spiritual aid is given to those 
who need it. No ; its advocates think it something apart 
from all of these, and repudiate any explanations based 
upon them . 

What is it ? According to Mrs. Eddy, she discover¬ 
ed it in 1866, and called it ChrisfiarTBciehce. Her own 
account of the discovery is contained in these words : 

“ In the year 1866 I discovered the science of metaphys¬ 
ical healing, and named it Christian Science. God had 
been previously fitting me during many years for the re¬ 
ception of a final revelation of the absolute principle of 
scientific mind healing. Christian Science unfolds the 
demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sensation 
nor life ; that human experience shows the falsity of all 
material things ; the only sufferer is mortal mind, since 
being in God cannot suffer. All real being is the Divine 
Mind and Idea. Life, Truth, and Love are all-power¬ 
ful and ever-present. Sin, sickness, disease, and death 
is the false testimony of false material sense ; that this 
false sense evolves in belief a subjective state of mortal 
mind which this same mind calls matter, thereby shut¬ 
ting out the true sense of spirit. My discovery that err¬ 
ing mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism 
and action of the mortal body set my thoughts to work 
in new channels, and led up to my demonstration of the 






38 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


proposition that Mind is all and matter is naught, as the 
leading factor in Mind Science/’ 

Here you have Mrs. Eddy’s claim to an original dis¬ 
covery. It is not put into very intelligible phrase, but 
as for that matter, the whole book is not a model of 
perspicuous writing. 

It is quite likely that this lack of simplicity and clear¬ 
ness in all the literature of Christian Science has com¬ 
mended it to some who have supposed there must be 
something wonderfully valuable back of such obscurity. 
It is not unusual to find disciples who express the hope 
that some day they may get hold of it. Just now it is 
rather beyond them. 

Unhappily for the claim of discovery, there has very 
recently been published an account of the life and phi¬ 
losophy of one Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, of Portland, 
Me., from which it would seem that for a number of 
years he practised some kind of healing, and in 1862 re¬ 
ceived Mrs. Eddy as a patient. She became greatly 
interested in his teachings, and was one of a number 
who at a later period seem to have elaborated the sug¬ 
gestions received from his teachings. However, it is not 
material to trace the likeness between the two systems, 
nor to note how one may have suggested the other, fur¬ 
ther than to question the asserted originality of Chris¬ 
tian Science as discovered in 1866. 

Her book, which is a bulky volume of many pages, is 
not easy to read. It is written in stilted language, 
abounding in difficult and unusual words, to some of 
which she attaches definitions of her own. The book is 
a strange mixture of science, metaphysics, interpreta¬ 
tions and applications of Scripture, startling statements 




WHAT IS CHRISTIAN - SCIENCE ? 


39 


of alleged facts, novel explanations of natural phenome¬ 
na, and considerable which perhaps none but the 
initiated can hope to understand. 

What are the principles of Christian Science ? 

1. The leading feature is that everything is Mind, 
and that there is hut"one Mind, which is God. Our 
bodies, the stars, the trees, the rivers, the walls of a 
building have no real existence, but are only ideas of 
mind, something like the visions that come before us in 
dreams, all unreal, without actual existence or proper¬ 
ties. 

2. As matter is unreal, matter cannot feel or know 
anything, and hence matter cannot be sick. Mind, being 
perfect, cannot be sick either. lienee there is no sick¬ 
ness in the world. What we call sickness is only a be¬ 
lief—not a belief of the All-Divine Mind, but of "the 
mortal mind. That belief is unreal. It has no sub¬ 
stantial reality. The mortal mind is unreal. 

Once get the belief destroyed, and you have destroyed 
all sickness. You may go further than this and destroy 
death also, for there is no death. It is only a false be¬ 
lief which the Truth concerning life annihilates. 

According to the alleged discoverer of this system. Her 
theory has been verified. She claims to have prevented 
disease in others, and to have restored the sick by chas¬ 
ing away these baseless beliefs. The book abounds in a 
large number of cases of reported cures of sick persons, 
and contains the claim that she has actually raised the 
dying. (Page 426, “ Science and Health.’’) 

But the philosophy of the book includes, as was said, 
other matters besides the cure of disease. It deals with, 
the awful mystery of sin. Sin. according to Christian 









40 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


Science, is only another error similar to disease, and is 
to be cured in the same way —that is, yon are to get rid 
of the belief in sin, and then you get rid of sin. It is 
only a false belief which the mortal mind cherishes. 
But sin and the mortal mind being equally non-existent, 
you chase both away when you bring truth to bear upon 
them. “ Healing the sick and reforming the sinner’ ’ 
are processes'of the same nature. Then the same pro¬ 
cess goes still further. It abolishes death. Even though 
people die now, the hope is cherished that as the prin¬ 
ciples of the science are developed and are better under¬ 
stood there will come a period when there will be no 
more dying. There is no real need of dying now, they 
say ; but somehow this false idea of death has so fast¬ 
ened itself upon the race that humanity cannot shake it 
off, and so people go on seeming to die just as from the 
beginning. 

Let us put these leading beliefs into a brief sentence. 
It runs thus : 

Christian Science teaches that there is no such thing 
as matter, or individual mind, or a personal God, or’ 
sin, or death. 

That is Christian Science. If you accept it, you must 
cease to believe in the existence of matter. You must 
ignore your individual consciousness. You must not 
think of God as a personal Being. You must cease to 
think of the actuality of sin. You must ignore death. 
That is what is required of you. 

Think of it. According to Christian Science you have 
no personality. God has no personality. God is simply 
the sum of the Universe. Man is an emanation from 
God. Man is God, as one of the factors whose sum 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


41 


makes God. Matter is only a fiction of the mind. It 
comes into being only when we think about it. There 
is no matter until you think about matter. Then it 
seems to come into being, but it is non-existent. 

Disease has no reality. It is only a physical thing, 
and physical things are only in the imagination. A 
man may think he is sick, or deformed, or crushed, or 
broken, but he is really none of these. He only thinks 
he is lame, or ill, or misshapen. Sickness or deformities 
are wholly imaginary, and hence need no material reme¬ 
dies. All you have to do is to get rid of the erroneous 
thought. 

It may seem to some, in stating these points, that it 
was merely the vagary of some one’s imagination, or the 
twisting out of shape the views which are advocated. 
But for every statement here put down there is the 
authority of the text-books themselves upon the subject, 
and the openly declared views of Christian Scientists. 

Now, let us see where this new teaching stands. 
First of all, we find that it is absolutely antagonistic to 
all the learning of the dag, so far as the study of the 
physical sciences go. If there is no matter, if matter is 
not real, why study botany ? The leaves of the flower 
you would analyze are but phantoms, not real. Why 
study astronomy ? Those distant orbs have no existence 
if there is no matter. They but seem to be there in the 
heavens. 

Why study anything? “Christian Science proposes 
the extinction of all belief in matter and the insistence 
upon the fact that matter is nothing but an illusion.” 
If so, why study its properties ? 

Perhaps it has never occurred to some advocates of 








42 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


this system that the logic which wo uld enable one to prove 
the non-existence of matter would more certainly prove 
the non-existence of spirit. There is just as strong- 
evidence that the body has a real Existence as that the 
soul lias'a reaT existence.' As one well said, “If my’ 
consciousness of my bodily members and their states be 
not trustworthy, then nothing to me is trustworthy, and 
I am left to flounder about in the darkness through the 
bogs of nothingness. ” 

It is a somewdiat new demand that we should be called 
upon to prove the existence of matter. The great diffi¬ 
culty hitherto has been to convince men that there is 
anything but matter in this world. The struggle has 
been to teach them to have faith in spiritual verities. 
Materialism has been the basis of most forms of unbelief. 
It has encouraged Atheism or the denial of God, and it 
has encouraged Pantheism inasmuch as if the personal¬ 
ity of Deity be denied God becomes a mere force in mat¬ 
ter. It has favored Positivism, for that makes God and 
spirit mere matters of education. 

Now, it becomes necessary to prove the existence of 
matter. A strange task indeed. Let those who deny 
its existence prove their denial. When that is done, we 
shall know what step to take next. 

Christian Science, then, sets itself against human con¬ 
sciousness, and against all of the treasures of human 
learning relating to matter, its existence, and its prop¬ 
erties. 

2. Then, in the next place, Christian Science rejects 
the clear and sinvple teachings of the Sacrefl Scriptures. 
Although not always in words opposing or denying their 
teachings, and although freely quoting them and speak- 



WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


43 


ing approvingly of them, it virtually denies what the 
Scriptures seem to reveal. 

It reduces the Bible from an inspired message to a 
collection of disjointed declarations capable of being 
twisted as you please. It puts meanings upon words 
which they never had beforehand arbitrarily declares 
that such words mean thus. You can read anything 
you please into any book if you are permitted to change 
the meanings of words to suit your system. 

Some pages of this book are devoted to a glossary to 
set forth what the author calls the real meaning of cer-' 
tain terms. Perhaps you would feel somewhat more 
sure that you had got nearer the real meaning of these 
words if it were not that the same word may have 
many meanings. Read any meaning you please into 
words and change it when you please, and you have the 
field before you. 

It is not necessary to quote from the Glossary to show 
the truth of the declaration that they make the Scrip¬ 
tures another Book from what it was intended to be— 
one that means just what they are pleased to have it 
mean, whereas it was designed to be a revelation. 

Denying the existence of matter and changing the 
teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, the^ go on to deny 
Personality, loth human and divine. They tell us 
there is no such thing as the individual mind, and 
that God is divine principle. We must get rid of the 
idea of personality as usually understood in the Church. 

What shall be said in reply to this denial of person¬ 
ality ? It brings up the whole question of whether this 
universe has been formed and is upheld by abstract law 
or by a personal agency ; whether there is a perfect God 



44 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


as the intelligent first cause, or whether God Himself ip 
simply the sum of all things, a diffusive principle. 

Now, to call God mere abstract law is really to declare 
that there is no God, for law is simply a mode of opera¬ 
tion. But a law always implies a law-giver. To call 
God merely the sum of all things is to bring in a large 
element of materialism, for “ matter must form a ,con¬ 
sti tuen t^ element of Deity when regarded in such a 
light. “ It is impossible to think of one God existing 
under such an innumerably divided form and under such 
divergent and contradictory conditions. ” 

God’s personality is shown in and through the mate¬ 
rial universe which He has made. He pervades and 
controls it. The universe exhibits a unity which would 
be impossible without a guiding intelligence back of it, 
and it exhibits a progressive advancement in better 
adaptation to higher ends. It seems to be moved along 
by some intelligence greater than itself, as if some plan 
were being realized. 

Then the personality of God is shown by the mani¬ 
festation of His spiritual attributes to man. Each man 
has some inward conviction that the will and purpose of 
a superior being are at work in the world. Each man 
has a sense of the distinction between right and wrong, 
and that implies a moral governor of the universe. 

The personality of man is shown first through his own 
consciousness of having a distinct physical existence 
which through all the changes of the body remains the 
same. Then it is shown by the powers of thought and 
of will, by the consciousness of right and wrong, and by 
the sense of religion. The recognition of himself under 
varying circumstances is an evidence of personality. 



WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


45 


To deny, then, a personal G-od and to deny personal- 
ity to man is but a step toward the denial of everything. 
Follow it out to the end, and you must declare there is 
no God, no man, no universe, nothing but blankness. 

The inevitable sequence of this reasoning must mean 
for some persons Atheism, and for others despair. 

Now, if the fundamental principles of Christian Sci¬ 
ence are so fallacious, what is to be said about the claim 
it is making to be a great curative agency for the heal¬ 
ing of diseases and the relief of the sorrows of our pres¬ 
ent condition ? 

1. If the principles of Christian Science are true t 
then they are always true, and there never should he any 
failures . Cures should follow wherever the principles 
are observed. But there are failures. Some die under 
the treatment; and no matter low thorough a believer 
in Christian Science any one may be, he is not exempt 
thereby from accident or disease, and some day he must 
die. It is in vain that blame is thrown on the patient, 
for it matters not whether he have faith or not, they 
say. According to its own principles, it ought always to 
succeed. If it fails in any attempt it shows that there 
is something wrong in its principles. Failure i s not to 
be explained by reference to the will of God, for God 
cannot have any will if He is an impersonal being, and, 
according to Christian Science, He has no personality. 

The failure of curative experiments all over the coun¬ 
try has made it necessary to interpose the protection of 
the law over those who are the unhappy subjects of the 
mistaken zeal of others. It is pathetic to hear so con¬ 
tinually the story of human suffering made worse by 
reliance upon Christian Science, 



46 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


2. Then, in the next place, many of the cures sup - 
posed to he wrought hy Christian Science can be account¬ 
ed for in other ways. A large number of sick people 
get well when they are let alone. Some diseases must 
run their course, and when their course is run the pa¬ 
tient recovers. That is all there is about it. The treat¬ 
ment is to wait and possibly to assist the recuperative 
energies of nature. The patient will recover whether 
you use orthodox remedies or Christian Science, or mes¬ 
merism, or if you simply let him alone. 

Another line of diseases is so dependent upon mental 
conditions that any change in the dominant mental state 
has a wholesome effect upon the bodily organism—that 
is to say, a large number of ailments are largely imag¬ 
inary, or are made worse by a disordered imagination. 

Two of the best tonics ever discovered are hope and 
fear. Administer one or the other, and you break the 
perverse hold the imagination has been holding over the 


l 


will. Then the will being free, the bodily organs obey 
its behests, and the man is on the way to recovery. As 
has been said, “ Mental impressions, however produced, 
act through the nervous system upon the organs of the 
body so as to stimulate or to obstruct their functions. 
Thus, fright, grief, hope, cheerfulness, determination to 
get well, or despair, all register themselves in the bodily 
condition. ” 

Something might be said here of that strange power 
known as Hypnotism, by which some curative property 
may be applied to the mind. Hypnotic suggestion is be¬ 
ginning to be a recognized agency, a sort of mind cure 
to be tried where such a treatment is suggested by abnor¬ 
mal mental conditions. 



WHAT IS CHRISTIAN - SCIENCE ? 


47 


Something, too, might be said about the retarded 
influence of ordinary remedies . People grow impa¬ 
tient to get well. They try the regular physician, then 
they go to another and to another. Finally they reach 
the Christian Science treatment and get well. They 
would have got well just as fast had they clung to the 
first treatment. But they were impatient, and Chris¬ 
tian Science gets the credit of the cure really begun by 
the regular practitioner. Cures are sometimes brought 
about by ceasing to take the nostrums of the quack doc¬ 
tor. People often get well when they give up hin¬ 
dering their own recovery. 

Now, if Weanaccount for many cures claimed by 
Christian Science, if we are continually seeing that it 
fails to do what it declares it can do, and if we see that 
its principles are contrary to common sense and to reve¬ 
lation, then surely it can present no attractions for one 
who believes in a personal God who rules His world in 
love, and who at the last will explain all this mystery of 
sorrow and suffering, and in His own good time will 
abolish sin and death. Christian Science has been a 
protest against the materialistic tendencies of the age. 
Its mission has been to call men’s attention to the spir¬ 
itual side, and with tender sympathy for suffering it has 
sought to lighten the woes of the sorrowful.'' 

This is all that it means for some people who are 
thinking favorably of it. They have not yet seen the 
foundations upon which it is based or the consequences 
whichjnust follow the adoption of its principles. 

To others it seems to bring help by bidding them 
turn away from the contemplation of their own aches 
and pains and troubles to other thoughts. But it re- 










48 


WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ? 


quires no new system to reinforce common sense in this 
regard, especially when it is one of the most elementary 
teachings of Christianity that the afflictions of the pres¬ 
ent are not worthy to be compared with the glory which 
shall be revealed. 

Why do we need Christian Science to teach us to look 
at the bright side when Christianity has always taught 
us that God is doing all things well, and that all the 
y chastenings of the present are for our future welfare ? 

When a thunder-storm is rolling up, which is the bet¬ 
ter course, to deny that there is any storm at all, or to 
j think of it as resulting in benefit ? 

Let it be said to all who are looking toward Christian 
Science that you will find in the Gospel of our Saviour 
Christ and in the Church He has established a nobler 
protest against materialism, a stronger plea for the su¬ 
premacy of the spiritual life, and a deeper gratification 
of all kindly sympathies. It bids you to pity the sor¬ 
rowing and to lift them up for the tender, healing touch 
of the benignant Lord and Father. It promises the 
time when He shall gather all His children home and 
death shall be no more. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 









IV. 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 


/ 


l 


Two preliminary statements seem to be necessary be¬ 
fore proceeding to answer the question. 

One of these is, that the general subject of the exist¬ 
ence of a spiritual world apart from the world of matter 
<!^is not denied by any believer in Christianity. 

If anything shall be said", then, against modern Spir¬ 
itualism, it is not in the interest of the materialism 
which denies all spiritual existences and regards the visi¬ 
ble world as all there is. The writer is not a Materialist, 
but a believer in a spiritual life, a spiritual world, and 
spiritual existences. 

t 51 The other preliminary statement is that we must have 
the very highest respect for the motive which has led 
n\any persons to adopt modern Spiritualism. The claims 
of Spiritualism came to them when their hearts were 
wrung with sorrow, and it promised consolation. In 
the midst of their bereavements it seemed a blessed 
thing to find something that promised to reveal the con¬ 
tinued existence and the present condition of their de¬ 
parted ones in another world. Bewildered by sorrow, 
bowed down by grief, they eagerly listened to those who 
assured them that the dead were living in another 
sphere, and that the dead could speak to them from 
the other world. 







52 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


Far be it from us to have aught but tenderest sympa¬ 
thy for them in their afflictions and yearnings. There 
is no harsh word for such people, even while we try to 
point out where true consolation may be found. 

“ Spiritualism in some form is not a new thing in the 
world. The attention of men in all ages has been 
l directed to the question whether the disembodied spirits 
j-qf the dead could communicate with the living. 

About fifty years ago, in this country, new interest 
was given to the whole subject by what became known 
as the Rochester knockings. In 1847 the Fox sisters 
and others in Western New York became the centres of 
certain manifestations which were supposed to indicate 
the presence of spirits. There has grown up since then 
a large society of Spiritualists having their circles in 
nearly every city. The membership is numerous. In a 
few places they have buildings used for their meetings. 
Boston has a structure of the most substantial character, 
the gift of a wealthy enthusiast. 

The main idea of modern Spiritualism is that we may 
hold communication with those who have passed into 
the spiritual world, sending and receiving messages, and 
that disembodied spirits make their presence known by 
audible sounds and by becoming materialized. There 
are three classes o f statements which are made to uphold 
modern Spiritualism. ~ “Let us look at them : 

1. There is the moving and tapping of tables and 
chairs and other articles of furniture in rooms. 

2. There are rapping sounds and some other modes of 
communication by which spirits make their presence 
known, and information is imparted without the agency 
of any medium except the inanimate objects themselves. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


53 


( 3. There are a great variety of communications through 
the agency of persons called mediums who are particu¬ 
larly susceptible to the influence of the spirits, and are 
favorite means of communication, and who thus become 
transmitters of intelligence from the spirit world to this. 

These are the three general groups of alleged facts. 
We need not enter into the particulars of a table-turn¬ 
ing circle. Let it be assumed that all have heard of 
the strange proceedings of a table when surrounded by a 
number of people whose hands complete the necessary 
magnetic circle. It will move around and sway back 
and forth, and do many other strange things. 

Nor is it necessary to describe a seance with a medium. 
The mediumistic seances and manifestations are quite / 
varied, but none of them are particularly interesting. 
There is, perhaps, the thrumming of a guitar in the air 
while the people sing ; the thrusting of an arm out of a 
cabinet ; the gliding of a white figure through the dark¬ 
ened room ; the whispering in the ear of the anxious in¬ 
quirer ; the sound of bells ; the turning on of the light, 
and the collection of the fee. Then it is over. 

Sometimes there is the writing on the inside of a slate 
which has been fastened against another slate. Then 
there are rappings and scrapings and displacement of 
articles. 


Now and then a trance medium appears, and in her 




trance she talks with spirits and tells you what they 
have to say about you and the pocketbook you lost, or 
what is to be the issue of your business venture, or the 
present condition of your great-uncle who died in the 
Kevolutionary War. Perhaps the seance is varied by 
the presence of some spirit who is bubbling over with 





54 


WHAT IS SPIRITUA 7 .SM ? 


information. Often these very communicative spirits 
are Indians who have somehow lost their old-time slow¬ 
ness of speech since they went to the happy hunting 
grounds. 

Let us resist the temptation to repeat what some of 
the spirits are reported as saying. 

Poor ghosts ; they haven’t grown a bit wiser than 
when they left us, if the printed specimens of their com¬ 
munications are at all correct. There is Shakespeare, 
wjio wrote good poetry once, but now from the spirit 
world he is sending hack to us stuff that would not find 
space even in a school girl’s album. 

There is George Washington, the “ father of his coun¬ 
try,” wise, great, and good. Think of his dabbling 
in poor poetry, too. If he had written such poetry when 
he was on earth his friends would have wept over him. 

It makes death all the more to be dreaded if there is 
the probability that people get so absurdly weak when 
they become spirits. 

Modern Spiritualism has done nothing for the intel¬ 
lectual welfare of mankind thus far. It has added 
nothing valuableto its literature, nor has it enriched 
science or in any way helpfully enlarged man’s mental 
horizon. If it be said that its main purpose is to bring 
comfort to the living by establishing communication be¬ 
tween them and departed friends, then we have to say 
that there has been so much of fraud and deception 
mingled with the whole system that confidence in its 
declared revelations is checked. It presents the great¬ 
est facilities for artful and unprincipled persons to prac¬ 
tise gross and dangerous deceptions upon others. The 
wonder is that, with the constant exposures of 'frauds, 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


55 


so many are willing to put such absolute faith in the 
whole system known as modem Spiritualism. There 
may be enough in it to excite the inquiry of the curious, 
or even to awaken the interest of the scientific student; 
but judging from the communications which have been 
attributed to spirits, the world has not been at all en¬ 
riched thus far, and as has just been said, there has been 
so much fraud mingled with it that it is amazing how 
any one can give it even a limited confidence, much less 
make it a religi on, a substitute for Christianity! 

One of the freshest and most interesting contributions 
to the study of this question is the report of the Seybert 
Commission, published in 1887. 

Mr. Henry Seybert, an enthusiastic believer in mod¬ 
ern Spiritualism, bequeathed to the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania a sum of money sufficient to^endow a chair in 
Philosophy. To this gift he attached the condition 
that the University should appoint a commission to in¬ 
vestigate all systems of morals, religions, or philosophy 
which assume to represent truth, and particularly of 
modern Spiritualism. The bequest was accepted with 
the condition attached, and eleven men of well-known 
ability were appointed to examine Spiritualism. 

At their preliminary meeting each member in turn 
expressed his entire freedom from all prejudices against 
the subject to be investigated, and his readiness to ac¬ 
cept any conclusion warranted by facts. One of the 
number, the acting chairman, so far from being unpreju¬ 
diced, confessed to a leaning in favor of the substantial 
truth of Spiritualism. Well, what did they find out 
about Spiritualism ? They took great pains, we are told, 
with their investigation. They conducted it with scru- 








56 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


pulous fairness. They examined many of the best- 
known mediums. They took plenty of time for it. 
They investigated slate-writing, spirit-rapping, and 
spirit materializations. And what were their con¬ 
clusions ? 

Listen to what they say. They have not discovered 
thus far a single novel fact. The slate- writing, whereby 
it was claimed that the spirits oflhe dead communicated 
messages to the living, they declared to be nothing more 
than mere tricks of legerdemain which could be imitated 
without the slightest reference to spiritual agency. 

The spirit-rappings they found to have a purely physio¬ 
logical origin, from the fact that the mediums always 
knew the rappings whenever they occurred, and could 
always detect imitations. The conclusion is well-nigh 
irresistible that ’the mediums themselves somehow pro¬ 
duced the rappings, whether by muscular contractions, 
or by the movements of joints of the body, or otherwise. 
It may not be possible to say just how, but their con¬ 
sciousness revealed their own agency. As to spiritual 
photography, the commission declare that it is worse 
than childish to claim a spiritual source for results which 
can be obtained at any time by any tyro in the art of 
taking composite pictures. You know how it is done. 
No one can be deceived by it. One picture is placed 
over the other. 

As to the materialization of spirits, they declare that 
trickery is the leading element in it. They found de¬ 
liberate attempts at deceiving them, and saw how the 
thing was done. 

Here, then, is one of the most crushing blows ever de¬ 
livered at Spiritualism. This committee unanimously 





WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


57 


concludes that so far as they had examined the subject 
in its fourfold manifestation of writing, rapping, pic¬ 
ture-making, and materialization, the whole thing was 
based on gross and intentional fraud. They saw how 
the tricks were done. They saw the tricks imitated. 
They could employ men, mere jugglers, to do the same 
things. This report is really conclusive to any reason¬ 
able mind, as showing how much of deception is bound 
up to-day with Spiritualism. 

But the report of the Seybert Commission does not,.* 
stand alone in condemnation of Spiritualism. We have "’ 
t he confession of t he Fox sisters that the rappings 
in which the spiritualistic faith originated were produced 
by a knack they had of half dislocating their toe joints 
and knee joints and replacing them with a sudden snajD. 
This can be done by other persons to-day ; but in this 
odd mode of deception modern Spiritualism was born. 
Thus it was ushered into being by a palpable deception. 
The condemnation of Spiritualism begins, then, in the 
very confession of its founders. 

But later on that condemnation is added to by the 
statements of mediums who have been driven into a cor¬ 
ner and compelled to confess that they were tricksters. 

The phenomena which profess to be based on a com¬ 
munication with the spiritual world seem to be very 
largely the result of vulgar legerdemain or of human 
credulity. Other phenomena, such as the movements 
of chairs, tables, and such like, may be accounted for. 

A great many of them can be imitated, designedly imi¬ 
tated. There are others which seem to result from the 
creation of what some have called the odylic force—a 
power developed in the human system, m connection 







58 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


with the brain as the nerve centre. This force allows 
the production of like mental states in accordance with 
what is known as the mesmeric relation, or possibly the 
hypnotic condition. This force seems to be transferred 
to bodies in contact with the persons in whom it is pro¬ 
duced, and hence the moving and tipping of tables and 
the like. Thus some explain it. 

We are becoming more and more acquainted with 
some of these strange powers that reside in the body, 
and things which are to-day very mysterious may be 
matters of course to-morrow. 

When you consider the "origin of Spiritualism, and the 
cloud of fraud and deception that surrounds it to-day, 
you may be ready to exclaim, there cannot be many who 
would be led away by it. But stop ; do not be too con¬ 
fident ; for, notwithstanding all the evidence which is 
always accumulating to show the falsity of the claims of 
Spiritualism, there are thousands of people in all parts 
of the world who are the victims of this delusion. In 
every city you will find them holding their seances. 
They publish quite an extended literature. They make 
converts, and some of their converts use money freely to 
build up their sect. 

Why does Spiritualism grow f Why does any one 
ever become a Spiritualist f These are pertinent and 
important questions. There are several answers. Per¬ 
haps the most prominent one is the craving of the 
human soul to have some further knowledge of the de¬ 
parted spirits of those who were near and dear to them 
in this life. There is a desire to connect themselves in 
thought and interest with those whom they loved and 
who have now gone on before. It is a longing for con- 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


59 


tinued intercourse with those whom they loved on earth. 
When there is the death of one to whom there has been 
an especial attachment this longing becomes intense. 
You have seen the mother bemoaning her child year by 
year ; the father inconsolable because of the loss of his 
firstborn. The wife who has leaned long upon the strong 
arm of the husband finds it very hard to think of not 
speaking to him again until she passes hence. 

When all these cravings of the soul are strongest, and 
when the heart is most open and tender, then it is that 
Spiritualism offers itself. It says to bereaved ones, 
“ Come and see and be helped in your grief . 99 

It is with the hope of finding this help that many 
have plunged into this dreadful delusion and have been 
held in its snares. Some of them have been persons 
with no religious feeling up to the time of their being 
afflicted ; but something has been awakened in them by 
their sorrow, and not having been properly directed, 
they h ave taken up vagaries at which religion and 
common sense alike reluctate, 

2. But converts to Spiritualism are made still further 
by that strange propensity which is so often exhibited, 
the giving way to delusions, losing one’s judgment and 
throwing one’s self recklessly into a swollen current. It 
is a most curious fact that there are delusions which 
sweep over communities like wild-fire. Hence you will 
find here and there common sense upturned and mys¬ 
terious outbreaks of excitement in obscure neighbor¬ 
hoods. It is like a contagion. It takes hold of people 
and deprives them of all their good sense. They are in 
a state of unwonted excitement. There is a fellowship 
of kindred thought and feeling, and an enthusiastic in- 


60 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


terest, perhaps a burning zeal, for the cause. By and by, 
when the fever is allayed, and they drop into an ordi¬ 
nary state, a few of them are able to escape, but many 
of them are ashamed to break away. They continue 
to be Spiritualists in name, hoping for a return of the 
old interest and for a renewal of their old faith. 

3. In accounting for the growth of Spiritualism, we 
must not leave out of the consideration two classes, the 
designing and the unbalanced. Judging from the con¬ 
tinual exposure of the frauds of mediums, it is not hard 
to believe that a considerable number of persons have 
taken it up for what they can make out of it. They are 
crafty, guileful people, wKo’"cajole" money from the un¬ 
wary and gain influence and renown by tricks which en¬ 
title them to rank with the swindler and the forger. It 
is time that some one uttered a warning against a tribe 
of deceivers who, as spiritualistic mediums and physi¬ 
cians, are luring people to places, where they are not 
only swindled out of money, but are sometimes exposed 
to new temptations. 

There are some very skilful traps laid for the unwary. 
It is safest to shun the whole thing. There is nothing 
in Spiritualism that has ever been of any profit to the 
world, and the quest for any benefit it offers is apt to 
lead through ways that are very dark and treacherous. 
There is so much trickery connected with it that the 
unwary are very apt to fall into some pitfall if they let 
their curiosity get the better of them. 

There is a class of unbalancedjpeople who have become 
Spiritualists, or who rather show that they are unbal¬ 
anced, by claiming to hold intercourse with the dead. 
The sad fact is constantly before us that there are very 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


61 


badly balanced people who are not in insane institutions. 
Some are monomaniacs, daft in one direction, able to 
attend to business, but otherwise they are deranged. 
Some are weak and shaken in all directions. Not 
wildly excited, but their judgment has become prac¬ 
tically useless. Their sad lives have broken them, arid 
now they would deal with the dead, would interpret 
mysterious sights and sounds which they fancy reveal 
the presence of departed spirits. Just along the border¬ 
line of insanity, we say, are these people. Alas ! how 
many there are who are walking to-day just on the line 
that divides the sane from the demented, and are in¬ 
dulging in the very speculations which tend more and 
more to unhinge them. They ought not to be brooding 
over dark mysteries. They ought to turn their faces 
upward to the bright sunlight of heaven as God has re¬ 
vealed Himself through our Saviour Christ. 

There must be some spiritualists who are not wilfully 
deceiving themselves or other people, who believe what 
they say, and who live as if they were ever hearing 
sounds from the spirit world. To such people we say, 
‘ ‘ Why cling to Spiritualism as a sect, when in the Chris¬ 
tian Church you will find everything that is good in 
Spiritualism? Besides this you will find there what 
Spiritualism aims at but never attains.” 

The Christian Church believes in a spiritual world 
and in a world of spirits. It believes in the continued 
life of the departed. It believes that they are not an¬ 
nihilated, notjlumbering, but alert and conscious. How 
much they know of the affairs of this life we cannot tell 
beyond the assurance that they with us form one family 
in the Lord. Thus we have fellowship with the depart- 



62 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 


ed. Through our Saviour Christ they are alive upon 
that other shore as we are alive on this. We commemo¬ 
rate the departed. We do not want to forget them. 
We cannot forget them. We look forward to joyous 
meetings, to gladsome reunions, to the extension of bliss 
in the binding together of those who one by one come 
into the eternal kingdom. We know that we shall find 
our home with those who have gone hence in the Lord. 

Yes, we say everything that is good in Spiritualism 
stands clearly before us in the Church of Christ, which 
cherishes the solemn declaration of the Divine Master : 
“ I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whosoever be- 
lieveth in Me shall never die, and whosoever believeth 
in Me shall not die eternally.’ 5 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 



N 





























V. 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 

It would be difficult to give a definition of Socialism 
that would suit all Socialists. 

There is a very great difference, for example, between 
one extreme wing, the Anarchists, who would reduce all 
existing institutions to chaos, in the hope of building up 
something better out of the ruins, and another wing 
known as Christian Socialists, who affirm that there can 
be no true Socialism unless it is rooted and grounded in 
Christ. These speak of Him as the Liberator, the Uni¬ 
fier, the Head of humanity. They declare that the 
Christian Church is the world’s first and greatest bond 
of union between all sorts and conditions of men. 

It is rather confusing, then, to use the same word 
“ Socialist” to define two such antagonistic parties as 
the Anarchists and the Christian Socialists ; but how¬ 
ever opposed the views of these extreme wings, they do 
find themselves agreed in being dissatisfied with society 
as it at present exists, and in claiming that something 
can be done and must be done to improve man’s lot in 
the present world. 

In a general way, then, we may say that Socialism 
deals with man’s condition in the present life as he is a 
member of society. It covers a great many matters 




66 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


which affect his temporal welfare. It does not neces¬ 
sarily have anything to do with his future interests. It 
relates simply to his present happiness. 

Perhaps it may simplify the matter for our present 
purpose if we rule out of this consideration altogether 
the aims and principles of Christian Socialism. As de¬ 
fined recently by an English bishop, “ Christian Social¬ 
ism is that system of ethics which aims at teaching all 
men their duty as Christians toward all the different 
classes in the social system, from the highest to the low¬ 
est. Christianity aims at the well-being in this life and 
in the life to come of every member of the social system.” 

Whereas once the dominant idea among many Chris¬ 
tians was that it made but little difference what a man’s 
surroundings here were, how he was governed, what kind 
of a house he lived in, what wages he received, so he 
was told of a better world to come after this—now we 
are all beginning to realize that the man’s surroundings 
here have much to do with his preparation for a better 
life hereafter. Christian Socialism takes into consid¬ 
eration the bettering of man’s present condition, but 
with a clear expectation of the continuance of life here¬ 
after. Such Socialism would put down all injustice be¬ 
tween men, would check the greed that gets all it can 
out of the laborer without any adequate return. It 
would so spread the spirit of brotherhood that men will 
always be ready to share what they have with others. 

Let us except Christian Socialism, then, from the 
statements which are to follow. 

Socialism as referred to here means the movement 
which is outside of the Christian Church, and which is 
so often in direct antagonism to Christianity itself. 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


67 


Perhaps if you think of this kind of Socialism as hay¬ 
ing no necessary reference to any other world than this, 
and as aiming to secure more enjoyment from the pres¬ 
ent life than is possible now, you will have a fairly clear 
idea of its aim. Its methods for realizing this aim are 
numerous and vary greatly. In most instances great 
stress is laid upon land-ownership and co-operative labor, 
and these loom up very prominently in all discussions of 
Socialism. 

One of the most common conceptions of the system is 
that Socialism is a movement by which people may own 
land and capital in common and may use both for the 
advantage of all. But such a statement as that concern¬ 
ing Socialism would hardly be satisfactory except as set¬ 
ting forth one of the numerous aims of the movement; 
and yet it is well always to remember that somehow So¬ 
cialism has to do with the ownership of the soil and its 
products. Whatever may be its other lines of operation, 
one is the denial of any absolute proprietorship in lands, 
and the denial of any special right to the means of liveli¬ 
hood and enjoyment. 

It is claimed by some Socialists that these two denials 
strike at the roots of so many of the miseries of the pres¬ 
ent social order under which we live that they are will¬ 
ing to have Socialism defined as a movement by which 
the co mmunity is to gain land and capital and to operate 
them for the good of all. 

But Socialism is more than a co-operative land com¬ 
pany and more than a profit-sharing business enterprise. 
It touches the whole question of natural and acquired 
rights, it has to do with the nature of government, 
it concerns itself with the social relations of man with 





68 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


his fellow-man, and it enters into questions of education. 
So wide, indeed, is the scope of the movement, so many 
points does it touch, that we have still a great variety 
of Socialists when we have excluded the Anarchists and 
the Christian Socialists ; and a great variety of remedies 
proposed for existing evils. 

The modern socialistic movements took form about 
the time of the widespread unsettlement of labor made 
by the introduction of machinery—say as far back as a 
century or more ago. The French Revolution also paved 
the way for new schemes for the amelioration of the 
woes of men, especially in finding relief from political op¬ 
pression and the restoration of political rights and free¬ 
dom. Some of these schemes looking to radical changes 
in social relations were advocated by philosophers and 
statesmen, and experiments in communism and co-opera¬ 
tive labor were actually tried. 

The utopian dreams of Robert Owen, Saint Simon, 
Fourier, Cabet, the Brook Farm colony, and many 
others, were the outcome of the socialistic movement. 

But the greatest development of the movement has 
been within the last thirty years or so. Some of us can 
recall notices of gatherings held in London and else¬ 
where as far back as that; but there was such a mixture 
of German rationalism, philosophy, and Russian political 
anarchism that we did not know what it meant. About 
1872 there seems to have been a partial driving out of 
the Anarchist element, and now we are told that as an 
organized movement Socialism has assumed a form wholly 
free from Anarchism, and delights to call itself Social 
Democracy. But, judging from the May Day demon¬ 
strations in some of the European cities, if the Anar- 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


69 


chists have been expelled th§re_is^a.great deal of explo¬ 
sive material still left in European Socialism ; so that 
we must still think of iiTas a movement with a great 
variety of branches, and while its one aim is greater 
comfort here, there are strange methods by which differ¬ 
ent sections hope to secure that aim. 

Passing Ey countless vagaries which are grouped under 
Socialism, some of them too wild and absurd for a mo¬ 
ment’s serious consideration, we find in the programmes 
of Social Democracy many things to arrest our attention. 

—Eiret of all, the ownership of land. They demand that 
all land, with the mines, railways, and all means of 
transit, shall be common property. With this they de¬ 
mand that all means of production, distribution, and ex¬ 
change be common property. There is to be no more 
private ownership of land. The soil must be worked 
under Government direction and control. 

Here , then , is the proposed substitution of Commu¬ 
nism, a system which has never yet been practicable in 
any form in which it has been tried, although often ex¬ 
perimented with. While some things can be better done 
upon the general co-operative plan than by individuals, 
it is hardly probable that many things can be success¬ 
fully done in that way. If practicable, if all ownership 
could be common, it is probable that the ills that 
would follow would be greater than under present con¬ 
ditions, inasmuch as the incentives to industry and 
thrift would be removed. 

A second feature proposed is the repudiation of na¬ 
tional debts . It is hardly a justification of this repudia¬ 
tion to claim that large portions of such debts were 
rolled up for purposes of war. However contracted. 


70 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


they were supposed to be for the benefit of the nation, 
and as such became a burden upon the nation until paid. 
Besides this, a large part of the income of a very con¬ 
siderable portion of the people is derived from what they 
receive for the use of money loaned to the Government. 
It is as legitimate to loan to the nation as to loan to an 
individual; and money thus loaned has an earning 
capacity. There would be great suffering and dreadful 
injustice wrought by such repudiation. 

A third feature is the abolition of the right of inher¬ 
itance except in the case of direct heirs, &nd in their case 
the limitation of the amount to be inherited. 

While much can be said of “ the grasp of the dead 
hand’* upon property, the unworthiness of many heirs, 
and the bad use they sometimes make of property for 
which they did not labor, there are many questions sug¬ 
gested as to how far the State should step in to regulate 
the disposal of a man’s accumulations, and of what 
would be, upon the whole, best for society. The 
State does interfere now, but it is to prevent one’s mak¬ 
ing a will by which he would perpetuate injustice. 
The State would protect the rights of the widow and 
children, and would have no one exercise undue influ¬ 
ence over the testator. If the State were to go much 
further, would it not check proper enterprise and fore¬ 
thought? Would it not encourage luxurious extrava¬ 
gance, upon the ground that there was no use of saving 
anything ? 

Without taking up the programme in detail, it may 
be remarked that its adoption involves the reconstruc¬ 
tion of society. There is no likelihood that society can 
ever be reconstructed upon a different basis from that 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


71 


on which it rests now. The family is the unit. Com¬ 
munity life destroys the family. Competition within 
proper bounds is stimulating and healthful. The re¬ 
moval of all competition is the death-blow to effort at 
improvement. Property rights are as old as mankind. 
The cancelling of all claims to ownership means ulti¬ 
mately roving here and there as the bands of the desert. 
Protection of the weak, help to the suffering, equal 
rights for all, these are some of the purposes of govern¬ 
ment ; but paternalism, carried to its legitimate conse¬ 
quences, leads to general feebleness and becomes a pre¬ 
mium upon laziness and inefficiency. No communistic 
experiment has ever yet succeeded, because it is subver¬ 
sive of the divine order of the family^ and contrary to 
what man in the long run sees to he for his best inter¬ 
ests. Men have not been happy in model communities. 
Nor can they be. Were all the dreams of the Socialists 
realized to-day, if they could abolish poverty, provide 
against want in old age, have control of all the usable 
soil on the earth, and of all the transportation over the 
earth and fill men’s pockets with money—if all these 
things could he secured, it is doubtful if the aggregate 
of human happiness would be increased. New ills 
would be introduced. New difficulties would arise. And 
then the process would have to be gone over again and 
again. There can be no doubt that some of the schemes 
of many Socialists are not founded upon wisdom, and 
would be repudiated if they really had the opportunity 
to experiment with them, and to see the results. 

In addition to the unwise and impracticable character 
of much that has become part of their programme, the 
two things which are most to be deplored are, first, the 


72 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


antagonistic attitude which many Socialists hold toward 
the Christian Church, and, second, their failure to see 
that the Church’s method, which is Christ’s method, 
for securing reforms is likely to be the safest and 
best in the long run. Christ’s method is to have men 
treat men as brothers. The Church is a brotherhood of 
all sorts and conditions. Love is the fulfilling of the 
law. When love rules, rights are regarded. 

This unfriendly attitude toward the Church is taken 
because many men have misunderstood the purposes of 
the Church, and have been unwilling to accept its teach¬ 
ings and submit to its restraints. It is false to declare 
the Church unfriendly to the poor and the enemy of the 
working man. They have no truer friends to-day than 
the Christian Church. And besides this, there is no 
more powerful agency for the reform of wrongs and for 
making life happier than the Christian Church. Just 
in proportion as the ideal of brotherhood which has al¬ 
ways been held up by the Christian Church is realized in 
that degree will men lead peaceful, happy, and useful 
lives here and be also prepared for the blessedness of the 
future. 

Some phases and sections of modern Socialism are de¬ 
cidedly to-day anti-Christian, yet Christianity itself has 
given the impulse to the study of all those questions 
which relate to man’s happiness in the present life. 
Men have not always recognized the origin of those im¬ 
pulses which have led them to ask how they can make 
the present life better, happier, and nobler for their fel¬ 
low-men. It is the Altruism of Christianity, the desire 
to give even one’s self that others may be happy. 

The unfriendly attitude of Socialism toward Chris- 



WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


73 


tianity makes its progress more alarming than the gen¬ 
eral adoption of many erratic views would be ; for it 
disregards the purpose of the Christian religion, which 
is to teach men that the present earthly life is but pre¬ 
paratory to the life to come. Socialism also overlooks 
the help which a consideration of future responsibility 
gives in the performance of present duties. If men are 
to be judged in the future for neglecting their brothers 
here, let the warning of retribution be added to every 
other consideration that secures brotherly treatment. 

While we thus deplore the alienation of the Socialist 
from the Christian Church, we are compelled to admit 
that, from his standpoint, he has some justification. 
Alas ! that he finds any. 

Unhappily, not all Christians are living Christianly ; 
and the Socialist, seeing the poverty of their lives, 
claims that the Church is not the friend of all. Think 
of the many rich and how they use their wealth. They 
do not deny themselves. They think their money can 
buy any pleasure and cover up any shame. They give 
nothing to the poor but scant and unwilling alms. They 
are haughty and unbrotherly. 

Think, too, of the many people who possess so much 
of this world’s goods and never share any part of what 
they have with others. One man builds a palace and 
shuts his neighbors out of it. Another buys a glorious 
painting, and the eyes of only a privileged set ever look 
upon it. Another feasts his rich neighbors who have 
plenty, and overlooks the poor to whom no feast days 
bring even enough. 

Think, again, of the gorgeous raiment in which so 
many women are attired while their poorer sisters know 


74 


WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 


not how to get shelter from the winter’s cold. And 
what is worse about that rich raiment is, that to produce 
it and to make it, some wage-earners may have had to 
toil for what barely keeps soul and body together. Lux- , 
ury is often enjoyed at the price of the laborer’s degra¬ 
dation and suffering. 

Think, too, of the indifference shown by many em¬ 
ployers of labor as to the condition of their employes. 
When the work is done and the wages are paid, what are 
they to each other? Nothing. In the estimation of 
some, nothing. Obligation ends with the work. 

No wonder, then, that men point the finger of scorn 
at such miserable failures to carry out the teachings of 
the Master whom we profess to serve. No wonder that 
men ask, “Is it true that the Church is the friend of 
all classes ?” But there is a better view. 

The Christian Church is a divine institution, divinely 
founded, divinely protected. Its mission is to gather 
into one family all who will try to reproduce the life of 
Him who is the Brother of man. The imitation of 
Christ is the realization of truest manhood and of truest 
brotherhood. 

When the employer treats the employe as his brother, 
difficulties vanish. When the rich hold their posses¬ 
sions as stewards, their wealth is sanctified. When, in a 
word, men, whether rich or poor, and whatever their 
station, model their lives after the life of Christ, then 
have they brought nearer to earth the kingdom of 
heaven, in which dwell righteousness and peace. 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM? 


VI. 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM? 

The newest substitute proposed for Christianity is 
Agnosticism. It is an outgrowth of the scientific re¬ 
search of recent years. It expresses itself in an unwill¬ 
ingness to accept anything in religion unless upon the 
same experimental evidence demanded in science. The 
fundamental principle of Agnosticism is that knowledge 
is restricted to what are called phenomena, to those 
things which are capable of being apprehended by the 
senses. 

Hence, as religion deals mainly with spiritual verities 
and pertains primarily to the spiritual nature of man, 
there has grown up a disposition on the part of some to 
reject religion—not to deny it absolutely, but to press it 
aside as something with which they need have but little 
to do, because, say they, it may have no substantial ex¬ 
istence. It may be nothing but a product of men’s fan¬ 
cies. In plain words, religion is ignored. It is sup¬ 
posed to be without any solid foundation. It may be a 
mere figment of the imagination. It may be anything 
else. The Agnostic does not concern himself to know 
just what it is. He has concluded to get along with¬ 
out it, and therefore he says he knows nothing about it. 

The term Agnostic was brought into use by Professor 



78 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


Huxley in 1869, although that eminent scientist is hard¬ 
ly to be held responsible for all the vagaries of thought 
which have clustered around the convenient title of 
Agnosticism. 

At times the late Charles Darwin seemed inclined to 
accept Agnosticism. Once writing to a friend, he said 
that he sometimes, not always, thought he could best de¬ 
scribe his state of mind by saying that it was like that 
of the Agnostic. When he wrote that he was defend¬ 
ing himself from the charge of Atheism. He was not 
willing to be called a disbeliever in God. He would not 
take that position. He would rather be called an Agnos¬ 
tic—that is, one who did not know. 

There are many other scientists who have been cited 
as Agnostics. Tyndall and Huxley and Darwin form a 
trio of influential leaders of thought who have been 
styled Agnostics. There are lesser names in the scien¬ 
tific world whose position has been substantially the 
same. It may almost be affirmed that a few years ago 
Agnosticism was the creed of science whenever science 
spoke of religion. 

Hap pily it is not^so to-day, for scientists are begin¬ 
ning to recognize the fact that different forms of evi¬ 
dence may be equally conclusive, and that there are 
different domains, and what is applicable in one domain 
may not be in another. The Agnostic is not so confi¬ 
dent as he once was that he has the only measuring-rod 
of truth in his hands. There is coming to him a doubt 
as to what a few years ago was boastfully set forth. 
Men are seeing that one line of proof may be just as 
positive in philosophy, for example, as another is in sci¬ 
ence. And we are quite sure that a good scientist may 



WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


79 


not always be a good metaphysician, or a good lawyer, 
or a good theologian. When a scientist goes ont of his 
way to discuss questions that belong to another domain, 
if he carries his own scales and his own measuring-rods 
with him, he may find himself unable to reach correct 
results. Thus you cannot be sure that the scientist is a 
safe adviser if you call him in to settle a question of 
morals. He may discuss learnedly the value of facts 
and the result of experiments, and yet leave the whole 
question of the right and the wrong of an action un¬ 
touched. Out of his sphere he may err. 

The scientists have been specially out of place when 
they have invaded the domain of religion and have vir¬ 
tually said, “We have come now to test your doctrines. 
We want to analyze them and see what are their com¬ 
ponent parts. We shall divide and measure and com¬ 
pare, and finally get hold of what is essential and tell 
you what you ought to accept and what you ought to 
reject.” But instead of going on as they started, some 
have sprung aside with the declaration, “We really do 
not know whether religion is true or not. We cannot 
use our measuring lines and scales. We kjftpw nothing, 
therefore.” This is Agnosticism. You must remem¬ 
ber, then, that Agnosticism is not a denial of religion. 
It is simply the unwillingness to declare either in favor 
or against religion. “We do not have the same evi¬ 
dence,” say the Agnostics, “ that we have in science.” 

Agnosticism is not a very coherent system. It has no 
doctrines of its own. It does not affirm or deny any¬ 
thing positively. It simply says, when pressed to accept 
anything that requires other than scientific evidence, 
especially anything that asks for the exercise of faith, 






80 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


“ I do not know. I cannot accept anything I cannot 
prove. Your declaration may be true, but I do not 
know. There are some things I do know. There are 
other things I do not know. I simply reject anything I 
do not know. I reject every kind of evidence except 
what is verified by phenomena.” 

That is the attitude of many to-day toward religion. 
Let us look at this new foe of Christianity. Calder- 
wood defines Agnosticism as a theory of that which is de¬ 
clared unknowable. TJns theory assumes its most defi¬ 
nite form in the denial of the possibility of any knowl¬ 
edge of God. How can such denial be sustained? How 
carTany one be sure ? Note the inconsistency of the 
position. The Agnostic first virtually admits the exist¬ 
ence of somewhat beyond the ken of ordinary evidence. 
That he calls the Unknowable. Then he grows dog¬ 
matic. He forms a theory about it and puts it in the 
shape of an unsupported dogma. “ Why,” he says, 
“we cannot know anything about it.” How does he 
know that ? What about other kinds of evidence ? The 
Agnostic is not consistent when he says, “We can know 
nothing about God or a future life.” He sweeps relig¬ 
ion aside as if it were a series of speculations with which 
no one need be specially concerned just because ordi¬ 
nary evidence does not apply. Here is an illustration 
of the absurdity of his position. A man stands by the 
side of the astronomer looking to the north, some clear 
starlight night, and he says, “ I can count a hundred 
stars off there in the region of the polar star.” “ Yes,” 
says the astronomer, “ there are that many, but how very 
many more ?” “No more than I can see and count,” 
says the man. “ Give me a little time till I look close- 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


81 


ly. Wait now and I’ll 'count them all/’ “ But,” says 
the astronomer, “ there are many more than you can 
see. If it were possible to count each one that is visible 
to your eyes, there are still more.” “ How can there be 
any more than I can see ?” the man persists. “ I’ll not 
believe in the existence of those I cannot see.” Then 
the astronomer quietly produces his telescope and bids 
the man look through it. Need we apply the illustra¬ 
tion ? 

Grant the position of the Agnostic, and you have pre¬ 
sented as a substitute for Christianity the declaration 
that we can never hope to know anything beyond a very 
narrow realm. “We can never,” says the Agnostic, 

“ know anything about the nature and existence of God 
or of any kindred subject. Our faculties are such now, 
they are so limited, so imperfect, that we need not try to 
use them in feeling after God and things spiritual, for 
we cannot know whether there is any God, or spirit, or 
future existence, or immortality, by the forms of evi-._ 
dence which we have adopted in science.” 

Now, what shall we say to this ? 

The replies to Agnosticism are numerous. It will be 
possible now simply to suggest one of them. 

Professor Huxley said : “ Agnosticism is of the essence 
of science, whether ancient or modern. It simply means 
that a man shall not say he knows or believes what he 
has no scientific ground for professing to know or to be¬ 
lieve.” Just so. We can all see that that is true in 
science. I have no right to say that I know or believe 
anything in science unless I have a scientific basis for 
my knowledge or belief. 

We go further and say that we have no right to de- < 


82 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


clare that we know anything unless we have a satisfac¬ 
tory basis for our belief. 

The question, then, resolves itself into whether any 
^evidence can be adduced that is as satisfactory as that 
form of evidence called scientific. Or, to put it in other 
words, Is there a satisfactory basis for the alleged facts 
in religion ? 

There are three of these alleged facts which are of 
fundamental importance : first,_ t hat ther e is a personal 
God ; second, that we have souls ; third, that there is a 
future life. 

Take, now, these three main facts of religion : that 
there is a God, that we have souls, that there is a future 
life. How are they supported ? What is there to lead 
us to believe each of these three statements ? We admit 
at once the utter impossibility of applying the same tests 
to settle these questions as may be applied in science. 
But we have equally convincing proofs that God exists, 
and we gain also some knowledge of His character so 
that we declare there is a personal God and He is thus 
and so. 

And so we take up the question of the present exist¬ 
ence of the soul and the continued existence of the indi¬ 
vidual. We do not weigh or measure or apply chemical 
tests to see if there is a soul in a body. Nor do we 
sweep the underworld with some new astronomer’s glass, 
to see what has become of the individual who once dwelt 
in this clay tenement now deserted. 

No, we cannot get a satisfactory basis that way, no 
more than we can tune a musical instrument by apply¬ 
ing a lotion to its strings. 

We get at the truth in a different way, and, as we think. 






WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


83 


in a way that finally gives us something as solid to rest 
upon as anything presented in science. But to go over 
the whole process would require more time than you have 
to give now ; and so let us simply glance at what we have 
to convince us of the existence of God. If there is a 
God, we may have immortal souls and there may be a 
future life. One point proven leads to the others. 

Hozv, then , do we know that there is a God ? 

Not to enumerate them all, we say that a strong proof 
of the existence of Deity is Jhe purpose which pervades 
all creation. 

“ How do I know that a camel passed my tent last 
night ?” said an Arab chief to one who doubted the ex¬ 
istence of Deity. “ By the tracks I saw in the sand ; 
and if I see the evidences of God everywhere, shall I not 
believe that He exists, even though I look not upon 
Him ?” 


The argument from design has never been refuted. 
This world bears evidence of being the product of an in¬ 
telligence in its creation, and hence somewhere there 
must be an intelligent Creator. 

Means are adapted to ends. The most delicate and 
complicated bits of machinery go on with their work until 
the foreordained end is reached. The whole universe 
bears evidences of plan and purpose. 

Let us deny this assertion for a moment and see what 
must follow. If this world is not due to purpose, it must 
be due to chance. Assume for one moment that there 


C 

< 


is no God and try to account for the origin of the world 
by chance if you can. There is nothing between pur¬ 
pose and chance. You cannot speak of law, for that is 
simply a mode of operation. It must be purpose or 


Vv 




84 


WHAT IS AGHOSTICISM ? 


chance. Now, try for a moment to fancy that this world 
and all of its wondrous contents came into being by 
chance. Do you know what is just as probable as that ? 
Why, it is just as probable as to take up a bag-of letters 
of the alphabet and cast them broadcast over the floor 
of this room and then have them come together and 
form one of the plays of Shakespeare. It is just as 
probable as that. Yes, it is just as probable that the 
world came by chance as if you could take your columns 
of figures in your arithmetic, copy them down on slips 
of paper, let the breezes carry them abroad, then gather 
them up again and find them carefully arranged so that 
they tell just exactly how often your pulse has throbbed, 
how often your eyelids have closed since you were born. 
Such results as these are as probable as that the world 
came into being by chance. 

To exhibit the folly of such a supposition, consider 
this. Let all who read this page spend five years in 
multiplying together the largest figures you can put on 
your slates. Then spend five years more in squaring and 
cubing the result. Then add all the product of all your 
calculations together in one mighty total, and it would 
still fall short of expressing the number of probabilities 
against a single probability for the world’s having come 
into being by chance. We have, then, strong evidence 
gained in this way in favor of a purpose in creation. 
Now, a purpose implies a Deity. Further, if there is a 
purpose evident in creation, a purpose implies personal¬ 
ity, and we find ourselves reaching up to the thought of 
a Deity who exists apart from the things He has made. 
The unconscious world is not God. God is not nature ; 
He is separate from nature as a garment is apart from 


WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


85 


the one who wears it; but back of nature, giving some 
suggestion of Himself from this outer manifestation. 

Personality is as evident in nature as purpose, and 
hence we are convinced that the Designer is distinct 
from and superior to the design. 

Now let us go further. When we find in the design 
so many evidences of force, excellence, and beneficence, 
we say this personal God must be powerful, must be 
wise, and must be good, and so on, step by step, until 
we have ^before us some ideal of a Being who is omni¬ 
potent, all-wise and loving. 

Then revelation comes to our aid and gives us clearer 
knowledge concerning Him whom we have but dimly 
comprehended in nature until we look upward and say, 
“He is our Father. We are His children.” The as¬ 
pirations of the human soul find their satisfaction in 
Him. Our soul is athirst for the living God. We can¬ 
not rest until we rest in Him. The revelation which 
God has made of Himself, especially in the Incarnation, 
finds its response in man’s very nature. 

As it has been well said, if there were no infinite 
goodness we would not be drawn toward it. If there 
were no God, and if we had no souls, we could have no 
knowledge of the past and no hopes of the future. We 
instinctively recognize the possibility of a love that is 
purer than ours and which is ever satisfying. We also 
recognize a will that is stronger and holier than ours 
which will guide us into paths we could not otherwise 
find. 

We are as sure of our facts as the scientist can be of 
his. Our intuitions, our observations, our experience 
and the testimony of others against the background 








86 


WHAT IS AGHOSTICISM ? 


which any opposite suppositions would create, present 
to the mind of the Christian a body of evidence as 
strong as can be produced in behalf of science. 

We claim that Agnosticism, therefore, is a shrinking 
from a domain of truth which is just as convincing as 
.the domain of science. 

Much of the Agnosticism of our day is mere intel¬ 
lectual laziness or some new drapery for that infidelity 
which is always changing its form. 

It is an affectation of ignorance by some whose busi¬ 
ness it should be to find out all they can. It is often a 
mock humility which conceals beneath itself that arro¬ 
gance which says there is nothing it cannot conquer. 

Agnosticism is virtually saying sometimes, “ No, I 
know nothing about these things, because there is noth- ( 
ing in them that is worth knowing. If there were any- ) 
thing worth knowing, would not / have grasped it 
We need have no fears that Agnosticism will become a 
successful substitute for Christianity. So long as peo¬ 
ple are born into the world with these intuitions which 
all thus far have had, so long as people will ask what is 
their relationship to the power that is superior to them, 
so long as they ask what is the future to be for them, 
that long will they want something better than Agnos¬ 
ticism. 

The Agnostic is religious without knowing it. He 
has in him religious capacities. He has religious aspira¬ 
tions. He is living in God’s world, and this is a relig¬ 
ious world. If men were only to open their eyes and 
obey the best aspirations of their hearts, they would see 
that religion is a part of our very humanity. In God 
we live and move and have our being. “ It is because 



WHAT IS AGNOSTICISM ? 


87 


IJgJs always with us that men are sometimes apt to 
believe that He is nowhere to be found,’’ that He is not 
in His own universe, and that by ignoring Deity they 
would live as if He were not. 

As an illustration, Dr. Momerie, whose works have 
been freely drawn upon in this chapter, reminds us of 
the story of the fishes who sought for the waters of the 
sea, and of the bird who wanted to find the air : 

“ * Oh, where is the sea ? ’ the fishes cried, 

As they swam the crystal clearness through ; 

‘ We’ve heard from of old of the ocean’s tide, 

And we long to look on the waters blue. 

The wise ones speak of an infinite sea ; 

Oh, who can tell us if such there be ? ’ 

“ The lark flew up in the morning bright, 

And sung and balanced on sunny wings, 

And this was its song : ‘ I see the light; 

I look on a world of beautiful things ; 

But flying and singing everywhere, 

In vain have I searched to find the air.’ ” 

The Agnostic is living in God’s world. God touches 
him at every turn. God is speaking to him every hour 
andHby all the events of life. 

Let the Agnostic seek the Lord. He is not far from 
every one. “ We are the offspring of God,” and if we will, 
we can realize our relationship to Him as children of the 
Almighty Father, brought near to His loving heart by 
the wondrous grace of the Incarnation. 





































































































